November 13th, 2015 – Avian Friday: Rest Stop

Owls in general are not one of the birds commonly seen around Western Washington. The Snowy Owl is even less observed. Their breeding habitat is in the arctic tundra far north of Canada. During winters some migrate south as Colorado. The last several years they have been sighted around the Pacific Northwest including Ocean Shores, Skagit Valley and at Boundary Bay in British Columbia. In 2012 there was a unusally high number of birds that spent several weeks at the delta area just south of Vancouver B.C. during their winter migration. I made a couple of trips there from the Seattle area in hopes of getting a few images of these fascinating birds and managed to get lucky on both occasions.